@Fil Albuquerque,
Quote:Just how all that babbling disproves reductionism ??? Substituting materials n even objects doesn't mean substituting functions...as long any other object is able to perform a given X function the said object shares behavioural properties with the first object.
Behavioral properties is an interesting concept, with biological origins. We should dig that up another day. Suffice to say that in the clock example, whereby one changes all the parts with others made of a different material, the point is that the atomic-level quantum properties of ghese different atoms do not matter much at the level of the cog. What matters is 1) solidity and other physical characteristics of the material at ambiant temp; 2) the SHAPE you give to the material.
You could argue that the physical qualities of a material depends on its atomic-level characteristics. That's true for its weight, somewhat, and that may be true for strength, elasticity, ductability, etc. I don't think it's fully understood yet but that's a question for Farmerma, and it may well be true. STILL, the precise shape of the cog is what matters MOST. You could chose from different materials, even non-metalic perhaps like silicate or plastic or what not. as long as they have the solidity, the circumference, number of dents, shape of those dents, etc. as the original, it would work. And you might have the best possible material, but if you break one dent it's over.
All this to say: it's all in the design, baby! Or to apply it to biology, the structure drives the parts and make them work.
It's always about the 'shape' things take or have. DNA is nothing by itself, without a cellular super-structure around it that USES it to read and write the recipes of useful proteins in chemical code.
On another planet they may used some other acid than the desoxyribonucleic to write down their biologic codes, and it works just as well I guess.
[quoted] If you are going to speak up for Holism do it right. On the other hand no matter how holistic you go you wont make a set of squares/bricks behave like a circle/wheel.[/quote]
I thought holism was your cup of tea? Any determinist interpretation of QM is holistic in nature.
Quote:The de Broglie–Bohm theory is explicitly nonlocal: The velocity of any one particle depends on the value of the guiding equation, which depends on the whole configuration of the universe. Because the known laws of physics are all local, and because nonlocal interactions combined with relativity lead to causal paradoxes, many physicists find this unacceptable.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie–Bohm_theory
So in that (your?) interpretation of QM, the whole universe knows at all times the position, speed, direction, spin of each and every particle in it, and computes the next stage based on that instant info. Rather a strange holistic behavior which reminds one of God.
